Where does “航空母艦” come from?

航空母艦 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 母艦, from Japanese 母, from Old Japanese はは.

航空母艦 (Japanese): an aircraft carrier

Definitions

  1. an aircraft carrier

Ancestry of “航空母艦”, step by step

航空母艦 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 母艦

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese母艦a mother ship, a tender; Short for 航空母艦
2Japanese母mother; a woman who breastfeeds and raises a...
3Old Japaneseはは—

via Japanese 航空

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese航空aviation
Every word from Old Japanese はは →Every word from Japanese 母 →Every word from Japanese 母艦 →